Art of making refractory metallic wires or filaments.



. I PATENTED JAN. 1, 1907. v H. c. PARKER & W. G. CLARK. ART 0P MAKING REFRACTORY METALLIC WIRES 0R FILAMENTS.

APPLICATION FILED OOT. 14.1906.

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UNITED STATES- ILTENT. OFFICE, s

I HERSCHEL O. PARKER, NEW YORK, N. Y., AND WALTER G. CLARK, OF SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, ASSIGNORS TO PARKER-CLARK ELECTRIC COMPANY, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

ART OF MAKING-REFRACTORY METALLIC mass on FILANIENTS.

Patented Jan. 1, 1907.

. Application filed October 14,1905. Serial No. 282,712.

To all whom, it may concern: Be it known. that -we, HERSCHEL C. PARKER, of New York, county of Kings, and State of New York, and WALTER G. CLARK, of Seattle, county of King, and State of Washington, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Art of Making Refracthe following is a full, clear, and exact detory Metallic Wires or Filaments, of which scription. l

Our invention relates to improvements in the art of obtaining refractory-metals, such as iridium, osmium, vanadium, and other refractory metallic substances difficult to produce in the ordinary way in the form'of a coherent tape or filament.

v Our invention relates more'particularly to the art of producing sheets, tapes, wires, or filaments of metallic elements of the kind named, which appear in combination with v chlorinand ammonium and which can-be reduced by heating in the presence of a volatile reducing-a entsuch as for instance, ammonium. c orid or other ammonium saltswhereby the volatile matter disappears and the metal is produced in a sheet or film. It has been found, for instance, that iridium and osmium usually occur ,in. combination and that commercially these metallic elements can generally be had in association with a compound of ammonium and chlorin.

If to this compound is added an excess of 4 ammonium chlorid and the mixture is heatedfthe volatile matter disappears ,and the iridium and osmium are deposited in the form of a metallic film, and if by suitable process the iridium ',and osmium are first separated the action is as stated above, only of course the .metal without. alloy is'de osited. It is likely that this action takes p ace on many metallic elements. Our experiments so far have-been conducted chiefly "with iridium, and we have -found that if a thin film of iridium is roduced and it is desirable to make it t 'cker the, above-described action can be re eated and the film will be thickened to any esired extent. Acting on'the theory above set forth andin carrylng out our invention we use the compound salts as stated, and apply them in the form of a paste to a refractory or other substancesuch as, for instance, a quartz- -tube, rod, or

described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying.

plate, or a metal surface-and heat the said substance, so as to vaporize the volatile film in the form desired is of the necessary thiclmess. 'If prefered, a little binding IIllX- ture-such, for instance, as dextrincan be 7 added to the composition to assist in holding it in lace.

With these ends in view our invention consists of improvements in the art of producin refractory metallic ta es,- bands, wires, an filaments, which will drawings, forming apart of this specificae hereinafter clearlytion, in which. similar numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a refractory plate used forreducing the metal. Fig. 2 shows the composition to be reduced as applied to a rod or cylinder. Fig. 3 is a view of the tape or band as it is produced. Fig. 4 shows how the tape or'band can be sawed into wiresor filaments. Fig. 5 is a view of one of the wires or filaments which we produce; and F' 6 is a view of thewiretwisted into a spiral orm, so as to give it a generally circularjcross-section. o

We have shown the above views to lIld.1- .outour mvencate .a simple way of c tion, but not with the idea of limiting it to any such a paratus. In Fig. 1 we have shown a' ban 10 of the composition described-.-

to wit, the combination of iridium, ammoand chlorin, together with an excess of a volatile reduc' a ent, such as ammonium chlorid, or instea o the iridium the metallic element may be some other kind. This coating of the compound salts is applied to either a refi'acto or metallic surface 11, which is subjecte to heat sufiicient to volatilize the salts and throw down the metal in the form-of a thin foil, tape, or ribbon. If

the foil, ribbon, or tape is to be thickened, the composition may be reapplied to the part '10 and reheated, the operation bein repeateduntil' the metal is of sufficient t 'ckness. In F' 2 we have shownthe band 10 produce in spiral form on a rod or cylinder 12,

and for some purposes it can perhaps be better produced on t e inner side of a cylindrical tube; but obviously the ribbon ortape can.

deposited metal cut up, as described below.-

The ribbon or tape or a sheet of the metal can be'used as produced for certain purposes; but to further prepare it for use the band 10 or a sheet-can be sawed, as shown in 13 in Fig. 4-, into a series of longitudinal strips, thus producing wires or filaments 10 the ga eof which can of course be regulated b ma ing the tape or band more or less 'thic and by making the saw-cuts more or less near together. The .wire 10 can be twisted into spiral shape, as in Fig. 6, if it is desired to get t e effect of a. wire which is circular in crosssection, and a filament or wire of this character can be used for manypurposes and particularly as a filament for an electric lamp. The spiral form strengthens it structurally and makes a better light when incandescent.

It is obvious that the ribbon or band 10 can'be slit up in any convenient and wellknown wayas, for instance, by cuttin it with a diamond. It will be evident, too, that .the proportion of the volatile reducing agent which is usedin the reduction processes will necessarily vary with the hardness and thickness of the film to beproduced and with the nature of the metallic salts'to be treated.

If the metal is deposited as described, it can be peeled off from some surface, as stated, but to other surfaces it adheres, making a firm lating or coating, and metallic surfaces may e coated in this manner for the protec- .=tion of the metal, or the iridium ma be deposited upon a metal which can be olved away from the iridium, leaving the iridium in the form of a sheet or plate.

Having thus fully described our invention, We claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. The improvement in the art of producing refractory metallic ta es or wires, which consists in reducing by eat a mixture of 'diumam-monium chlorid with an excess of. ammonium chlorid, in the form of an elongated metallic tape deposited upon a suitable surface.

2. The improvement in the art of producing refractory metallic wires or tapes, which consists in placing upon a suitable surface salts containin iridium together with armmonium chlori the salts being distributed in the form of a tape or band, and then heating the salts, whereb the volatile matter is thrown off and metal ic iridium in tape form deposited. r

3. The improvement in the art of producing refractory metallic wires or tapes, which consists in placing upon a suitable surface a mixture of iridium ammonium chlorid together with a volatile reducing agent, the material being placed in tape form and then applying heat to the mixture whereby the volatile matter is thrown off and the iridium tape deposited.

4. The improvement in the art of producing refractory metal tapes .or Wires, which consists in arranging in the form of a band upon a suitable surface, salts containing iridium chlorin and ammonium, then adding a volatile reducing agent, and then heatin the surface so as to produce the metal in band or tape form.

5. The herein-described improvement in the art of producing refractory metallic tapes or wires, which consists in placin upon a suitable surface salts containing iri ium ammonium and chlorin, adding thereto a reducing agent, then heating the materials to reduce the metal, and finally slitting up the de-.

posited metal into the form of wires or filaments. v

6. The improvement in the art of producing refractory metal tapes or wires, wluch consists in arranging upon a suitable surface and in band form, salts containing iridium ammonium and chlorin, adding thereto a reducingI agent such as ammonium chlorid,

then ating the materials to reduce the metal in the form of a tape, and finally shtting the tape into wires or filaments.

HERSCHEL C. PARKER. WALTER (in-CLARK.

Witnesses:

WARREN B. Hu'ronmsoN, WILLIs A. Banana; 

